Why people look for Slack alternatives
Slack dominates team messaging, but three pain points push users to evaluate other options regularly.
Cost. The free tier limits message history, and paid plans can add up quickly for larger teams. Organizations with tight budgets often start shopping around the moment they hit those walls.
Privacy and data ownership. Slack stores your messages on Salesforce-owned infrastructure. Teams handling sensitive conversations — legal, medical, security research — sometimes need full control over where that data lives.
Performance. The official Slack desktop app is built on Electron, which bundles a full Chromium browser. On a modern machine it routinely consumes well over a gigabyte of RAM and spins up CPU even when you are not actively using it. On older hardware or battery-constrained laptops, this is noticeable every day.
Understanding which of these three problems you actually have points you toward very different solutions.
Self-hosted and open-source chat servers
If data ownership is your primary concern, you want a platform you can run on your own infrastructure. Several mature options exist.
Mattermost is the most direct Slack analogue. It offers a familiar channel-and-thread interface, a free self-hosted Community edition, and an optional cloud plan. The desktop client is also Electron-based, so you trade cloud lock-in for on-premises control, but the resource profile is similar to Slack.
Rocket.Chat is another open-source contender with a broad feature set including video calls and a marketplace of integrations. Again, the desktop wrapper is Electron.
Matrix / Element takes a federated, protocol-first approach. Element is the most popular Matrix client; it supports end-to-end encryption across federated servers. The ecosystem is broader but also more complex to administer.
Zulip occupies an interesting niche with its thread-centric model. It is open source, offers a free cloud tier for open-source projects, and has a self-hosted option. The desktop client — you may sense a pattern — is Electron.
Each of these is a genuine alternative when you want to move entirely away from Slack's ecosystem.
Lightweight Slack clients vs. full platform replacements
There is a category of Slack alternative that often gets overlooked: tools that keep you on Slack's network while replacing the official client. This matters if your team or employer is not going to migrate away from Slack anytime soon, but you personally are tired of the memory pressure.
This is exactly the problem msga (Make Slack Great Again) was built to solve. It is a native desktop client for Slack written in C++ and Qt6 — the same framework used by Telegram Desktop. Because it is compiled native code rather than a browser in a trenchcoat, it starts in under a second, idles near zero CPU, and uses roughly 60–100 MB of RAM compared to the gigabyte-plus footprint of the official app.
msga is free and open source under the GPL-3.0 license and runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. You can find the source and installation instructions on GitHub.
It is worth being honest: msga is not a feature-complete replacement for the official client yet. Some Slack features are still on the roadmap. If your workflow depends on Slack's full calls integration, certain admin panels, or every notification setting, you should test msga against your specific needs before committing. But for developers, writers, and anyone doing focused work in terminal-heavy environments, the trade-off is often worth it.
Comparing the main options at a glance
| Option | Type | Self-hosted | Client tech | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mattermost | Full platform | Yes | Electron desktop | Teams leaving Slack entirely |
| Rocket.Chat | Full platform | Yes | Electron desktop | Feature-rich on-premises setup |
| Matrix / Element | Federated protocol | Yes | Electron desktop | Privacy-first, federated orgs |
| Zulip | Full platform | Yes / Cloud | Electron desktop | Thread-centric workflows |
| msga | Native Slack client | n/a (uses Slack API) | Native C++/Qt6 | Slack users who want low RAM |
How to choose
Start with the question that actually brought you here.
If you need to leave Slack's servers entirely, pick a self-hosted platform. Mattermost is the smoothest transition for teams familiar with Slack's UX. Matrix suits organizations that want open federation and encryption without trusting a single vendor.
If cost is the driver, the free tiers of Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, and Zulip are worth evaluating. Zulip's free cloud offer for open-source projects is particularly generous.
If performance and battery life are the problem, and you cannot convince your team to migrate away from Slack, a native client like msga is the more practical answer. You stay on the same Slack workspace, keep the same channels and history, and simply stop paying the Electron tax.
If you are on Linux, you have probably felt the mismatch between Slack's resource appetite and the lightweight environments many Linux users prefer. msga was built with this audience in mind.
Getting started with msga
msga is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Head to /#download for build instructions and pre-built packages. Because it connects directly to Slack's API, setup is straightforward: sign in with your existing Slack credentials and your workspaces appear immediately.
The project is actively developed and accepts contributions. If a feature you depend on is missing, the GPL-3.0 license means you can check the roadmap, open an issue, or submit a patch. That is a level of recourse the official Electron app will never offer.